Exposure to Interpersonal Violence as a Predictor of PTSD Symptomatology in Domestic Violence Survivors

Abstract

This study examines the interrelationships between childhood abuse, exposure to maternal domestic violence, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology in a multiethnic sample of 111 adult female residents of a domestic violence (DV) shelter. Participants completed structured interviews about the DV and their prior violence exposure, as well as the Impact of Event Scale-Revised. As hypothesized, there was high co-occurrence between exposure to maternal DV and childhood physical and sexual abuse, and the frequency of lifetime violence exposure predicted PTSD symptomatology. A series of multiple regressions indicated a more complex pattern of relationships, in which specific forms of prior violence exposure predicted different PTSD symptom dimensions. A history of witnessing maternal DV predicted intrusion symptoms, and a history of childhood sexual abuse predicted hyperarousal symptoms. Ethnicity was not related to levels of violence exposure or to PTSD symptoms. Clinical implications of the findings are discussed.

An Interactional Perspective of Intimate Partner Violence: An In-depth Semi-structured Interview of a Representative Sample of Help-seeking Women

“…Other studies, however, report higher frequencies (Rhatigan et al 2006). Our findings about victimization in more than one partnership support previous findings that women with a history of childhood sexual abuse, childhood physical victimization, or witnessing physical IPV run a higher risk of revictimization than others (Griffing et al 2006;Messman-Moore and Long 2003). Our results suggest that being a witness or exposed to parents_ physical IPV is a stronger predictor of adult IPV victimization in more than one partnership than being a childhood victim of physical violence.…”

PTSD, Neuroimaging and Psychotherapy: A Fruitful Encounter

“…On the other hand, the low dissociation group showed increased sympathetic system response (heart rate and skin conductance) during the same task. These findings support the hypothesis that in addition to the anxiety/arousal subtype, there is a dissociative subtype of persons with PTSD symptoms who exhibit diminished physiological reactivity (Griffing et al, 2006). Another study found that female rape victims with acute PTSD who scored high on the Peritraumatic Dissociative Experiences Questionnaire exhibited suppression of physiological responses during exposure to trauma-related stimuli (Kaufman et al, 2002).…”

Children’s Actions when Experiencing Domestic Violence

“…Since 1997 a number of studies have focused on the issue of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and found that this group of children is at increased risk of developing PTSD (cf. Card, 2005, Griffing et al, 2006, Rossman, 1998.…”